After
decades of industrial logging and forest mismanagement, the Liberian government
has pledged that it will now only issue forest licenses to the communities who own the forest.

This welcome change
could be undermined however, by weaknesses in the
country’s laws that govern how community forest licenses are awarded and
managed. Fixes are needed to ensure community leaders are accountable to the
people and to stop logging companies from co-opting these
licenses and clear-cutting the forests.

This Global Witness brief proposes safeguards
that the Liberian government, and communities themselves, should implement
before any new community forest licenses are awarded. As Liberia prepares for presidential and legislative
elections it is crucial that these Community Forestry Management Agreement
(CFMA) applications are not approved until a robust legal framework to govern
them is fully in place.